De alchimia opuscula complura veterum philosophorum, quorum catalogum sequens pagella indicabit

ifices can perform coagulations through them, that is, extract the moisture from Mercury with dry things, so that the Mercury appears coagulated, but that coagulation is very bad. Whence Aristotle: Let alchemists know that they cannot change the species of things, but they can make things similar to them, that is, to dye red with yellow, so that it appears as gold, and to dye white with whatever color they wish, until it becomes very similar to silver. Just as those who join tin, copper, and mercury, and from that make sophistic silver. And purification through minerals also happens in metals, and it is not impossible, and reason does not stand against these, but against true gold and silver, which is in no way conceded to be made in nature and art, except through the reduction of bodies into first matter. Thus the species of things can be transmuted, as Aristotle adds before. And this is not done by liquefaction alone, but by the resolution of coagulated Mercury, when through the admixture of its spirit the body is transformed into Mercury.

On the difference of the generation of common sulfur, and simple sulfur, and Mercury. Chapter VI.